scholarly journals Frequency and Correlates of Fathers' Accommodation in Pediatric Anxiety Disorders

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ena Alcan ◽  
Tess Anderson ◽  
Eli R. Lebowitz
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Internalizing Symptoms ◽  
Child Anxiety ◽  
Externalizing Symptoms ◽  
Treatment Seeking ◽  
Family Routines ◽  
Pediatric Anxiety ◽  
Pediatric Anxiety Disorders

AbstractPrevious studies investigating family accommodation (FA) in pediatric anxiety disorders have primarily relied on mothers' reports, while data on FA by fathers remains scarce. We examined the frequency and correlates of fathers' FA of anxious children and compared fathers’ and mothers’ reports of FA. Participants were 69 parents of treatment-seeking children and adolescents with a primary anxiety disorder. FA was highly prevalent amongst fathers, with the majority of fathers participating in symptom-related behaviors and modifying family routines due to child anxiety. Fathers' accommodation levels were significantly correlated with fathers' reports of child internalizing symptoms, child externalizing symptoms, and fathers' own anxiety symptoms. Fathers’ and mothers’ reports of FA were moderately correlated, whereas their reports of their respective distress related to the need to accommodate were only weakly correlated. Fathers reported a significantly lower frequency of FA than did mothers. These findings highlight the importance of obtaining reports from both fathers and mothers when assessing FA. Results are particularly relevant to family-focused and parent-based interventions designed to address and reduce FA amongst parents of clinically anxious children.

scholarly journals Reflective Functioning in Children and Adolescents With and Without an Anxiety Disorder

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valérie Chevalier ◽  
Valérie Simard ◽  
Julie Achim ◽  
Pamela Burmester ◽  
Thalie Beaulieu-Tremblay
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Internalizing Symptoms ◽  
Reflective Functioning ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Maternal Attachment ◽  
Clinical Samples ◽  
Psychiatric Clinic ◽  
Clinical Group

Reflective functioning (RF), meaning the capacity to interpret mental states (intentions, emotions, thoughts, desires, and beliefs) underlying one’s own and others’ behaviors, may help understand the dysfunctional self-regulation associated with anxiety disorders. However, research on anxiety and RF in clinical samples is scarce. This study aimed to assess whether mothers’ and youths’ RF was associated with youths’ (a) anxiety disorders and symptoms and (b) internalizing symptoms. Another goal was to explore whether RF predicted anxiety and internalizing symptoms beyond the more commonly established effect of attachment. Canadian children and adolescents aged between 8 and 16years, and their mothers were recruited in an outpatient psychiatric clinic (clinical group with a diagnosed anxiety disorder, n=30, mean age=11.5±2.8years) and in the general population (non-clinical group, n=23, mean age=11.5±2.1years). The Child Attachment Interview was used to assess youths’ attachment along with three dimensions of RF (global, regarding self, regarding others). Mothers’ attachment and RF were assessed with the Adult Attachment Interview. Children’s and adolescents’ anxiety and internalizing symptoms were measured with the Behavior Assessment Scale for Children, second version. The clinical and non-clinical groups did not differ in mothers’ or youths’ RF. However, in the overall sample, youths’ RF regarding themselves and maternal attachment preoccupation were associated with internalizing symptoms. Sequential regression analyses revealed that higher RF regarding self predicted a higher level of self-reported internalizing symptoms, beyond the effect of maternal attachment (β=0.43, p<0.05). This study’s finding suggests that clinically anxious children and adolescents have adequate RF. We propose that the sustained hypervigilance and apprehension associated with anxiety make anxious youths sensitive to their own and others’ mental states. Our findings suggest that psychotherapeutic treatments for anxiety should make use of patients’ RF abilities to help them make sense of their symptoms and thus reduce them.

scholarly journals The Relationship Between Worry and Dimensions of Anxiety Symptoms in Children and Adolescents

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Rabner ◽  
Nicholas D. Mian ◽  
David A. Langer ◽  
Jonathan S. Comer ◽  
Donna Pincus
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Regression Model ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Separation Anxiety ◽  
Child Anxiety ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Separation Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Older Children ◽  
The Relationship

Background: Worry is a common feature across many anxiety disorders. It is important to understand how and when worry presents from childhood to adolescence to prevent long-term negative outcomes. However, most of the existing studies that examine the relationship between worry and anxiety disorders utilize adult samples. Aims: The present study aimed to assess the level of worry in children and adolescents and how relationships between worry and symptoms of separation anxiety disorder (SAD) and social anxiety disorder (Soc) may present differently at different ages. Method: 127 children (age 8–12 years) and adolescents (age 13–18 years), diagnosed with any anxiety disorder, presenting at a child anxiety out-patient clinic, completed measures of worry, anxiety and depression. Results: Worry scores did not differ by age group. Soc symptoms were significantly correlated with worry in both age groups; however, SAD symptoms were only significantly correlated with worry in younger participants. After the inclusion of covariates, SAD symptoms but not Soc symptoms remained significant in the regression model with younger children, and Soc symptoms remained significant in the regression model with older children. Conclusions: The finding that worry was comparable in both groups lends support for worry as a stable construct associated with anxiety disorders throughout late childhood and early adolescence.

scholarly journals Medication and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Pediatric Anxiety Disorders

2017 ◽  
Vol 171 (11) ◽  
pp. 1038
Author(s):  
Joan Rosenbaum Asarnow ◽  
Michelle S. Rozenman ◽  
Gabrielle A. Carlson
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy ◽  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Behavioral Therapy ◽  
Cognitive Behavioral ◽  
Pediatric Anxiety ◽  
Pediatric Anxiety Disorders

scholarly journals Attention Bias Toward Threat in Pediatric Anxiety Disorders

2008 ◽  
Vol 47 (10) ◽  
pp. 1189-1196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Krain Roy ◽  
Roma A. Vasa ◽  
Maggie Bruck ◽  
Karin Mogg ◽  
Brendan P. Bradley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Attention Bias ◽  
Pediatric Anxiety ◽  
Pediatric Anxiety Disorders

scholarly journals Dynamic changes in amygdala activation and functional connectivity in children and adolescents with anxiety disorders

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (4pt2) ◽  
pp. 1305-1319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johnna R. Swartz ◽  
K. Luan Phan ◽  
Mike Angstadt ◽  
Kate D. Fitzgerald ◽  
Christopher S. Monk
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Prolonged Exposure ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Initial Exposure ◽  
Amygdala Activation ◽  
Over Time

AbstractAnxiety disorders are associated with abnormalities in amygdala function and prefrontal cortex–amygdala connectivity. The majority of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have examined mean group differences in amygdala activation or connectivity in children and adolescents with anxiety disorders relative to controls, but emerging evidence suggests that abnormalities in amygdala function are dependent on the timing of the task and may vary across the course of a scanning session. The goal of the present study was to extend our knowledge of the dynamics of amygdala dysfunction by examining whether changes in amygdala activation and connectivity over scanning differ in pediatric anxiety disorder patients relative to typically developing controls during an emotion processing task. Examining changes in activation over time allows for a comparison of how brain function differs during initial exposure to novel stimuli versus more prolonged exposure. Participants included 34 anxiety disorder patients and 19 controls 7 to 19 years old. Participants performed an emotional face-matching task during functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning, and the task was divided into thirds in order to examine change in activation over time. Results demonstrated that patients exhibited an abnormal pattern of amygdala activation characterized by an initially heightened amygdala response relative to controls at the beginning of scanning, followed by significant decreases in activation over time. In addition, controls evidenced greater context-modulated prefrontal cortex–amygdala connectivity during the beginning of scanning relative to patients. These results indicate that differences in emotion processing between the groups vary from initial exposure to novel stimuli relative to more prolonged exposure. Implications are discussed regarding how this pattern of neural activation may relate to altered early-occurring or anticipatory emotion-regulation strategies and maladaptive later-occurring strategies in children and adolescents with anxiety disorders.

Characteristics of Parent- and Child-Reported Anxiety in Psychostimulant Medication Naïve, Clinically Referred Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Combined Type (ADHD-CT)

2002 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 234-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alasdair Vance ◽  
Jan Costin ◽  
Rebecca Barnett ◽  
Ernest Luk ◽  
Paul Maruff ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Child Anxiety ◽  
Parent Report ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Systematic Research ◽  
Child Report ◽  
Hyperactivity Disorder ◽  
Primary School Age

Objective: Anxiety is a frequent comorbid condition in referred primary school-age children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, combined type (ADHD-CT), yet there has been relatively little systematic research of the nature of this comorbid anxiety. We describe the characteristics of parent-reported child anxiety disorders and child-reported anxiety disorders in primary school-age children with ADHD-CT. Method: A cross-sectional study of 75 clinically-referred psychostimulant medication naïve children with ADHD-CT examining separately parent and child reports of anxiety, defined categorically and dimensionally. A two-year follow up of 12 children with parent-reported child anxiety and 12 children with child-reported anxiety was also completed. Results: There was no significant association between the child and parent reports of anxiety. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), separation anxiety disorder (SAD), specific phobia (SpPh) and social phobia (SoPh) were the most common anxiety disorder diagnoses reported by parents and children. Two-year follow-up data revealed no decrease in the parent report but a significant decrease in the child report of anxiety disorders. Conclusions: The dissonance between the parent report of child anxiety and the child report of anxiety, emphasizes the importance of careful and thorough clinical assessment of the child's perspective. The nature of parent-reported child anxiety and children's self-report of anxiety requires further systematic research.

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